A woman charged along with her newlywed husband with killing a man they met through Craigslist admitted to the slaying in a jailhouse interview with a newspaper and said she has killed more than 20 other people across the United States, claims which police said they are investigating.

In an interview with The Daily Item in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, 19-year-old Miranda Barbour said she wants to plead guilty to killing Troy LaFerrara in November. She also said in the interview she has killed at least 22 others from Alaska to North Carolina in the last six years as part of her involvement in a satanic cult.

Barbour, a petite woman, told investigators she met the 1.88-meter, 126-kg victim after he responded to her Craigslist ad offering sex for $100. She could face the death penalty in connection with the murder of the 42-year-old man, authorities said.

Barbour said she had no remorse for her victims.

"I feel it is time to get all of this out. I don't care if people believe me. I just want to get it out," she told the newspaper.

She admitted that she and her husband stabbed and strangled LaFerrara in Sunbury because "he said the wrong things".

Barbour also said she had killed at least 22 people in different parts of the country, including Alaska, California, Texas and North Carolina.

"When I hit 22, I stopped counting," she said in the article on the paper's website.

"I can pinpoint on a map where you can find them," she said.

Sunbury police Chief Steve Mazzeo told the newspaper that investigators were aware of Barbour's claims of involvement in other murders. He said they are "seriously concerned" and have contacted police in other jurisdictions.

Attorneys for Barbour and her husband, 22-year-old Elytte Barbour, have both sought psychiatric evaluations for their clients.

Miranda Barbour's attorney also asked a judge last week to toss out statements she made before she was charged. Public defender Ed Greco said in the motion that she wasn't afforded an attorney despite repeated requests during two police interviews.

Barbour said in the jailhouse interview that she wanted to plead guilty at her arraignment, but that Greco pleaded not guilty for her.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both defendants in LaFerrara's killing.

Elytte Barbour told investigators they committed the crime because they wanted to kill someone together, according to court papers. The couple, who were married in North Carolina and moved to Pennsylvania about three weeks before the crime, told police that Miranda Barbour stabbed LaFerrara in the front seat of her car while her husband held a cord around his neck.

AP -Reuters

(China Daily 02/18/2014 page10)